Bridal Bliss: Real Love at Last

When Tara walked into Qdoba on a rainy work night, she planned to grab a quick snack before Bible study. Instead, she sat down next to her future husband, single dad Greg, and his son Nigel, and had the best impromptu first date ever. Share their love and see their sweet destination wedding.

Perfect TimingIt was a cold, rainy Wednesday night in December 2010. Tara had been in New York City all day long for meetings and was happy to be back in the Philadelphia area just in time for dinner. Although she was tempted to go home and curl up on the couch, she decided to go to Bible study at her church instead—but before she headed that way, she went to grab a bite to eat at a Qdoba in a nearby shopping plaza. (She almost went to Five Guys, but as she would soon learn, she was much better off going for the healthier option this time.) Whe she walked in, Tara noticed Greg and his son Nigel sitting together at a table. Her gaze met Greg’s and she smiled. The moment Tara entered the restaurant, Greg was immediately drawn to her beauty, so he promised himself that if she sat anywhere near him, he’d talk to her for sure. It had to be God’s plan for them to meet that evening, because sure enough, Tara sat within earshot of Greg and Nigel as she ate her dinner and buried her face in a Pottery Barn catalog. Greg asked her if she was Christmas shopping, and just like that, the entire course of their lives changed.

Easy to Love“It was a very easy conversation,” shares Tara. “Greg was polite and charming and he showed a real interest in what I was saying. Nigel even got into the act, telling me that he wanted to be a soccer player when he grew up and responding in the affirmative when I asked if he took good care of his daddy.” Tara was married once before in her 20s, but wound up divorced. She’d tried dating other men she thought would be a better fit, but she hadn’t found what she was looking for just yet. When Greg, the kind of guy she’d never imagined she would date, asked for her phone number, she decided to keep an open mind. Tara wrote it down on the back of a business card for him and hoped he would call. (He still keeps that card in his wallet today.) “I had never been with a White man before, or a man with a child,” she recalls. “But, Greg seemed like such a nice guy and he was really handsome. What did I have to lose?” It was an excellent call on Tara's part. Greg called her the next evening and invited her on a "first date" to the Philadelphia Art Museum. They talked and talked, and talked—it was the perfect day.

An Evening Of LoveOne night, Greg called Tara and told her to put on something fancy and see if her parents would be willing to babysit Nigel for the evening. Tara's parents were happy to do it, so Greg took his ladylove out for a romantic surprise date. They went to a Chick Corea and Gary Burton concert and right before the show began, in the middle of the lobby with everyone watching, Greg got down on one knee and proposed to Tara. “We went to find our seats and tried to concentrate, but we just couldn’t stop grinning,” she recalls. They followed up the show with a romantic dinner and during the meal Greg confessed that he’d asked Tara's parents for their blessing when they showed up to watch Nigel. The happy couple tied the knot eight months later in North Carolina. Share their love and see their beautiful traditional wedding style.